1. Was She Influenced by Others?
One of our ministers in 1893 wrote to Ellen White that he felt she did not understand a certain subject on which he had written, and he tried to straighten her out. She wrote back to him: “You think individuals have prejudiced my mind. If I am in this state, I am not fitted to be entrusted with the work of God” (Selected Messages 2:63).HPEGWW 5.3
In 1850 a woman told Ellen White about a minister who had done something wrong. Not long after this, she sent a testimony to this minister. When the woman heard of it, she expressed regret for what she had told her. Ellen White wrote back:HPEGWW 5.4
What if you had said ever so much, would that affect the visions that God gives me? If so, then the visions are nothing.... God has shown me the true state of Brother_____. I know from the vision that his influence has been bad.... What you said, Sister_____influenced me not at all. My opinion has nothing to do with what God has shown me in vision.—Letter 1, 1851.
When it was suggested that she was influenced by her husband, Ellen White said, “My husband has no control of these manifestations of the Spirit of God. Many times he has been far away when I have had visions” (Letter 2, 1814). She said the same regarding her son: “I want to say, never repeat to another soul as long as you live the words that W. C. White manipulates my writings and changes them. This is just what the devil is trying to make all believe” (Letter 143, 1906).HPEGWW 6.1
Ellen White more than once “confessed” her real influence:HPEGWW 6.2
Unbelief is expressed by the words, “Who has written these things to Sister White?” But I know of no one who knows them as they are, and no one could write that which he does not suppose has an existence. Someone has told me,—He who does not falsify, misjudge, or exaggerate any case.—Special Testimony for Review and Herald Office, p. 16.
At another time she said it this way:HPEGWW 6.3
Some are ready to inquire: Who told Sister White these things? They have even put the question to me: Did anyone tell you these things? I could answer them: Yes, yes, the angel of God has spoken to me.—Testimonies for the Church 3:314.